(Updated) Quebec's student protests: Are you ready for another year?

(At 9 a.m. Thursday, less than 24 hours after this podcast was produced, the student group ASSE announced it would indeed boycott this month’s summit on higher education).

A year ago today, on Feb. 13, the students at College de Valleyfield voted to go on strike to protest a plan by the Liberal government to increase tuition fees.

The experts of the day figured this wasn’t a big deal. After all, CEGEP and university students had protested tuition hikes before and the consensus was the whole thing would probably fizzle out by spring break.

Boy, were we wrong.

In the months that followed thousands, then tens of thousands of students hit the streets in what would be referred to as the “Maple Spring.”

And as those marches grew, so did the stakes. Calls for tuition freezes were joined by demands for the elimination of tuition fees altogether, a demand that still echoes today and one that will figure in a summit on the future of higher education planned for later this month.

The protest movement has been credited in part for the fall of the Liberal government and the election of the Parti Quebecois. And that protest movement has made it clear it doesn’t play favourites when it comes to politics. At least one group representing 15,000 students – ASSE – says it’s ready to hit the streets again if free tuition isn’t on the table during the summit, even though the minister responsible for higher education has said Quebec simply doesn’t have the cash to pull it off.

So what’s next? Will Montreal echo once again to the chants of demonstrators this spring? And will the PQ, which has already showcased how much it ostensibly supports the students, blink and give in to the demands of protesters?

We asked those questions to Gazette universities reporter Karen Seidman and columnist Peggy Curran, both of whom covered last year’s protests. Click on the grey icon below to hear what they said. And remember, you can listen to us on iTunes at http://tinyurl.com/a7b39doand follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MontrealAtTheMoment

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